High School Seniors Be Wary
In high school the choice to go to college is almost made up for you. You either go to college and be a successful, contributor to society or you don’t go to college and ruin your life. That’s obviously not the reality but that’s what it seems like the teachers and parents are telling you.
For me, going to college was expected of me. My brother went to Doane College four years before I graduated high school so my parents just expected me to go. Now this article isn’t about how college is bad and that you shouldn’t go to college because I believe college is a great thing.
College allows students to immerse themselves in the real world in a somewhat safe and sheltered environment. It helps students transition from living under supervision all the time to actually being a decision-making adult. College also helps you get educated obviously.
My rant is more on the push of college in high school. I just don’t understand why and how society expects a 17-year-old kid to know what they are going to do with the rest of their life when they’ve barely experienced life at all. About a third of undergraduate students end up switching their majors at least once within three years of initial enrollment . Students rush into college and choose a major that they think they like to realize much later that they don’t want to study that subject at all; thus wasting thousands of dollars just because people forced them into going to college right away.
Yes, there’s always the option to go in freshman year as ‘undecided’ and figure it out through taking a bunch of different courses but is that the best way to really figure out what you want to do with your life? I know countless students that did just that and still ended up changing their majors later on.
I came to Morningside as an advertising major and I thought that I would never change. I even made a bet with my step dad for $50 saying that I would never change my major. Jokes on him because I changed my mind too late so I’m still graduating with a major in advertising. My point is that if I wouldn’t have been rushed into college at such an ignorant time in my life, I could have went to college for something that I’m actually passionate about and saved thousands of dollars.
The career I’m interested in now doesn’t even require a degree in anything, just a couple certifications. This is the case for a lot of jobs. There are so many students that end up wasting thousands of dollars taking courses that they will never use. This obviously isn’t the case all the time but it happens enough that you’d think we’d learn from past mistakes.
I changed my mind on my major in the middle of my junior year. When I finally decided that I didn’t want to go into advertising after college I knew that it was too late to change my major. Literally one of the worst periods in my life was when I decided to change career courses because I knew that I had just wasted my time and money.
Now I’m stuck. I’m stuck going to classes that I really couldn’t care less about, except for my news and feature writing class which I love. I’m also stuck with an amount of debt that will most likely follow me around for the next thirty plus years.
In the end, I’m not angry that I went to Morningside College. Morningside taught me a lot about myself and the world around me. The experiences that I’ve had here will impact me throughout my life. I just wish I could’ve saved a few bucks along the way.
And to the high school senior that is being nagged at by their parents to pick a college and major already, you have time. Even though up until now your parents have made most of the important decisions in your life, this choice is yours. Choose wisely, because it may come back to bite you in the ass.
November 29th, 2018 at 9:12 pm
Education is never a waste, Kaycie. Your degree will be there for you forever. It will be there if and when you need it.
And you are not stuck. You are at a flux point. You already know that nothing is permanent. So at the next flux point, your Morningside experience may be the key you need.
The last graf: agreed. Not everyone is suited to the college experience.